Another hot report from Capt. Ross McCubbin on Lucky Strke came in last night after he put solo charter Vic onto 8 from 10 yesterday in the 50 to 120 kg (adding another 2 from 4 the day before). This puts Ross on 95 marlin since he began his summer season on December 1.
Its been a long time that since we’ve heard of someone getting a 100 black marlin in a season off the Gold Coast, especially considering the Gold Coast season for the juvenile blacks is generally so short. And not wanting to jinx him at all (did anyone catch how the news media jinxed Leyton mid-way through his match last night?!;-), I’m sure Ross will get the tonne, a great achievement considering his particularly short season as well only just having returned to the Goldy from the Cairns season!
Typically, the Gold Coast doesn’t tend to hold marlin like for example Cape Bowling Green (Townsville), and they tend to move through quickly like they do in other areas like Port Stephens – and so the fact that so many are still being caught lends to the sheer number of fish moving through!
There are a lot of factors that go into how the Gold Coast fishes from day to day and the current speed does play a part (and we heard that during the recent tournament it was running hard).
When it’s running hard, the fishing is definitely a lot harder as the bait stays down and its harder to stay on top of the bait and the fish keep moving with the current.
The weather and wind direction will also play a part. This time of year when we get an extended run of northerlies, that’s what really gets the current running and pushes the dirty water out wider offshore. When we get the south-easterlies against the current, it pushes that cleaner water back in (which is generally the warmer water) and concentrates the bait.
I came across a report I wrote for Bluewater back in 2008 about the Light Tackle Master’s that year (12 marlin tags) and this year’s event certainly trumped that (five fold?) even though the current was roaring.
It seems like there are a lot of larger fish mixed in this year as well which may also be a reason why it’s fishing so well. At the top is a fish that Nick Currey’s team on Moreton Bay GFC‘s Aluhra fought during the tournament that they estimated at 100kgs and took 4.5 hours to catch on the light tackle (8kg). They lost another that they put at larger again just before lines out on the same day.
Anyways, it’s great to hear such great fishing on the Goldy an it will be very interesting to see how long the fish hold in there!
Tournaments this weekend:
Another big weekend of tournament is ahead and we look forward to hearing the results as they filter through.
